Sophie Swetchine Quotes & Sayings

If grief is to be mitigated, it must either wear itself out or be shared. — Sophie Swetchine

Years do not make sages; they only make old men. — Sophie Swetchine

When we see the shameful fortunes amassed in all quarters of the globe, are we not impelled to exclaim that Judas' thirty pieces of silver have fructified across the centuries? — Sophie Swetchine

To reveal imprudently the spot where we are most sensitive and vulnerable is to invite a blow. The demigod Achilles admitted no one to his confidence. — Sophie Swetchine

Life grows darker as we go on, till only one pure light is left shining on it; and that is faith. Old age, like solitude and sorrow, has its revelations. — Sophie Swetchine

Old age is the night of life, as night is the old age of the day. Still, night is full of magnificence; and, for many, it is more brilliant than the day. — Sophie Swetchine

The world has no sympathy with any but positive griefs. It will pity you for what you lose; never for what you lack — Sophie Swetchine

The only true method of action in this world is to be in it, but not of it. — Sophie Swetchine

The most culpable of the excesses of Liberty is the harm she does herself. — Sophie Swetchine

Strength alone knows conflict, weakness is born vanquished. — Sophie Swetchine

The beings who appear cold, but are only timid, adore where they dare to love. — Sophie Swetchine

Resignation is, to some extent, spoiled for me by the fact that it is so entirely conformable to the laws of common-sense. I should like just a little more of the supernatural in the practice of my favorite virtue. — Sophie Swetchine

One must be a somebody before they can have a enemy. One must be a force before he can be resisted by another force. — Sophie Swetchine

The ideal friendship is to feel as one while remaining two. — Sophie Swetchine

To have ideas is to gather flowers; to think is to weave them into garlands. — Sophie Swetchine

Indulgence is lovely in the sinless; toleration, adorable in the pious and believing heart. — Sophie Swetchine

Consolation heaps without contact; somewhat like the blessed air which we need but to breathe. — Sophie Swetchine

Faith, amid the disorders of a sinful life, is like the lamp burning in an ancient tomb. — Sophie Swetchine

The best of lessons, for a good many people, would be to listen at a keyhole. It is a pity for such that the practice is dishonorable. — Sophie Swetchine

I like people to be saints; but I want them to be first and superlatively honest men. — Sophie Swetchine

Piety softens all that courage bears. — Sophie Swetchine

The root of sanctity is sanity. A man must be healthy before he can be holy. We bathe first, and then perfume. — Sophie Swetchine

Impassioned characters never attain their mark till they have overshot it. — Sophie Swetchine

Suspicion has its dupes, as well as credulity. — Sophie Swetchine

In youth we feel richer for every new illusion; in maturer years, for every one we lose. — Sophie Swetchine

Antiquity is a species of aristocracy with which it is not easy to be on visiting terms. — Sophie Swetchine

We do not judge men by what they are in themselves, but by what they are relatively to us. — Sophie Swetchine

Those who make us happy are always thankful to us for being so; their gratitude is the reward of their benefits. — Sophie Swetchine

Time is the shower of Danae; each drop is golden. — Sophie Swetchine

Men do not go out to meet misfortune as we do. They learn it; and we
we divine it. — Sophie Swetchine

There are questions so indiscreet, that they deserve neither truth nor falsehood in reply. — Sophie Swetchine

Prayer has a right to the word "ineffable." It is an hour of outpourings which words cannot express,
of that interior speech which we do not articulate, even when we employ it. — Sophie Swetchine

The law of common sense. — Sophie Swetchine

All the joys of earth will not assuage our thirst for happiness; while a single grief suffices to shroud life in a sombre veil, and smite it with nothingness at all points. — Sophie Swetchine

America has begun her career at the culminating point of life, as Adam did at the age of thirty. — Sophie Swetchine

We are often prophets to others only because we are our own historians. — Sophie Swetchine

Let us not fail to scatter along our pathway the seeds of kindness and sympathy. Some of them will doubtless perish; but if one only lives, it will perfume our steps and rejoice our eyes. — Sophie Swetchine

Let us shun everything, which might tend to efface the primitive lineaments of our individuality. Let us reflect that each one of us is a thought of God. — Sophie Swetchine

We deceive ourselves when we fancy that only weakness needs support. Strength needs it far more. — Sophie Swetchine

Indifferent souls never part. Impassioned souls part, and return to one another, because they can do no better. — Sophie Swetchine

We are amused through the intellect, but it is the heart that saves us from ennui. — Sophie Swetchine

Respect is a serious thing in him who feels it, and the height of honor for him who inspires the feeling. — Sophie Swetchine

Only those faults which we encounter in ourselves are insufferable to us in others. — Sophie Swetchine

There is nothing at all in life, except what we put there. — Sophie Swetchine

There are but two future verbs which man may appropriate confidently and without pride: "I shall suffer," and "I shall die. — Sophie Swetchine

Miracles are God's coups d'etat. — Sophie Swetchine

Might we not say to the confused voices which sometimes arise from the depths of our being: "Ladies, be so kind as to speak only four at a time?" — Sophie Swetchine

Love enters the heart unawares: takes precedence of all the emotions
or, at least, will be second to none
and even reflection becomes its accomplice. While it lives, it renders blind; and when it has struck its roots deep only itself can shake them. It reminds one of hospitality as practiced among the ancients. The stranger was received upon the threshold of the half-open door, and introduced into the sanctuary reserved for the Penates. Not until every attention had been lavished upon him did the host ask his name; and the question was sometimes deferred till the very moment of departure. — Sophie Swetchine

Where there is a question of economy, I prefer privation. — Sophie Swetchine

As we advance in life the circle of our pains enlarges, while that of our pleasures contracts. — Sophie Swetchine

Attention is a silent and perpetual flattery. — Sophie Swetchine

The Christian's God is a God of metamorphoses. You cast grief into his bosom: you draw thence, peace. You cast in despair: 'tis hope that rises to the surface. It is a sinner whose heart he moves. It is a saint who returns him thanks. — Sophie Swetchine

In retirement, the passage of time seems accelerated. Nothing warns us of its flight. It is a wave which never murmurs, because there is no obstacle to its flow. — Sophie Swetchine

Since there must be chimeras, why is not perfection the chimera of all men? — Sophie Swetchine

Liberty must be a mighty thing; for by it God punishes and rewards nations. — Sophie Swetchine

Poor humanity!
so dependent, so insignificant, and yet so great. — Sophie Swetchine

We are always looking into the future, but we see only the past. — Sophie Swetchine

In order to have an enemy, one must be somebody. One must be a force before he can be resisted by another force. A malicious enemy is better than a clumsy friend. — Sophie Swetchine

We are all of us, in this world, more or less like St. January, whom the inhabitants of Naples worship one day, and pelt with baked apples the next. — Sophie Swetchine

Travel is the frivolous part of serious lives, and the serious part of frivolous ones. — Sophie Swetchine

Men are always invoking justice; yet it is justice which should make them tremble. — Sophie Swetchine

A good, finished scandal, fully armed and equipped, such as circulates in the world, is rarely the production of a single individual, or even of a single coterie. It sees the light in one; is rocked and nurtured in another; is petted, developed, and attains its growth in a third; and receives its finishing touches only after passing through a multitude of hands. It is a child that can count a host of fathers
all ready to disown it. — Sophie Swetchine

Youth should be a savings bank. — Sophie Swetchine

I love victory, but I love not triumph. — Sophie Swetchine

If it were ever allowable to forget what is due to superiority of rank, it would be when the privileged themselves remember it. — Sophie Swetchine

The very might of the human intellect reveals its limits. — Sophie Swetchine

In this world of change naught which comes stays and naught which goes is lost. — Sophie Swetchine

There are two ways of attaining an important end, force and perseverance; the silent power of the latter grows irresistible with time. — Sophie Swetchine

Our vanity is the constant enemy of our dignity. — Sophie Swetchine

True poets, like great artists, have scarcely any childhood, and no old age. — Sophie Swetchine

Repentance is accepted remorse. — Sophie Swetchine

He who has ceased to enjoy his friend's superiority has ceased to love him. — Sophie Swetchine

I study much, and the more I study, the oftener I go back to those first principles which are so simple that childhood itself can lisp them. — Sophie Swetchine

What is resignation? It is putting God between one's self and one's grief. — Sophie Swetchine

There are not good things enough in life to indemnify us for the neglect of a single duty. — Sophie Swetchine

The most dangerous of all flattery is the inferiority of those about us. — Sophie Swetchine

Virtue is the daughter of Religion; Repentance, her adopted child,
a poor orphan who, without the asylum which she offers, would not know where to hide her sole treasure, her tears! — Sophie Swetchine

In youth, grief comes with a rush and overflow, but it dries up, too, like the torrent. In the winter of life it remains a miserable pool, resisting all evaporation. — Sophie Swetchine

Happiness and Virtue clasp hands and walk together. — Sophie Swetchine

We expect everything and are prepared for nothing. — Sophie Swetchine

There is a transcendent power in example. — Sophie Swetchine

I can understand the things that afflict mankind, but I often marvel at God those which console. An atom may wound, but God alone can heal. — Sophie Swetchine

Friendship is like those ancient altars where the unhappy, and even the guilty, found a sure asylum. — Sophie Swetchine

We recognize the action of God in great things: we exclude it in small. We forget that the Lord of eternity is also the Lord of the hour. — Sophie Swetchine

The chains which cramp us most are those which weigh on us least. — Sophie Swetchine

When any one tells you that he belongs to no party, you may at any rate be sure that he does not belong to yours. — Sophie Swetchine

Loving souls are like paupers. They live on what is given them. — Sophie Swetchine

The inventory of my faith for this lower world is soon made out. I believe in Him who made it. — Sophie Swetchine

Pride dries the tears of anger and vexation; humility, those of grief. The one is indignant that we should suffer; the other calms us by the reminder that we deserve nothing else. — Sophie Swetchine

By becoming unhappy, we sometimes learn how to be less so. — Sophie Swetchine

If we look closely at this earth, where God seems so utterly forgotten, we shall find that it is He, after all, who commands the most fidelity and the most love. — Sophie Swetchine

There are minds constructed like the eyes of certain insects, which discern, with admirable distinctness, the most delicate lineaments and finest veins of the leaf which bears them, but are totally unable to take in the ensemble of the plant or shrub. When error has effected an entrance into such minds, it remains there impregnable, because no general view assists them in throwing off the chance impression of the moment. — Sophie Swetchine

The mind wears the colors of the soul, as a valet those of his master. — Sophie Swetchine

Love sometimes elevates, creates new qualities, suspends the working of evil inclinations; but only for a day. Love, then, is an Oriental despot, whose glance lifts a slave from the dust, and then consigns him to it again. — Sophie Swetchine

Death is the justification of all the ways of the Christian, the last end of all his sacrifices, the touch of the Great Master which completes the picture. — Sophie Swetchine

Our faults afflict us more than our good deeds console. Pain is ever uppermost in the conscience as in the heart. — Sophie Swetchine

The injustice of men subserves the justice of God, and often His mercy. — Sophie Swetchine

The heart has always the pardoning power. — Sophie Swetchine

Truth only is prolific. Error, sterile in itself, produces only by means of the portion of truth which it contains. It may have offspring, but the life which it gives, like that of the hybrid races, cannot be transmitted. — Sophie Swetchine

We must labor unceasingly to render our piety reasonable, and our reason pious. — Sophie Swetchine